In a supplementary charge sheet filed in the case of conspiracy behind the anti-Hindu riots in northeast Delhi last year, Delhi Police has used animation to explain the chronology of events and present evidence. The artificial intelligence-aided animation shows how a group of rioters allegedly destroyed the evidence systematically during the violence that erupted in the last week of February 2020.
Delhi Police files fresh chargesheet in the Delhi Riots Conspiracy case. In a first, use animation to explain the planning by rioters. Every CCTV was destroyed by a set of people in a 3-km radius shortly before violence erupted there. This would have required days/weeks of reccee pic.twitter.com/7TfMqb4sZL
— Raj Shekhar Jha (@rajshekharTOI) February 25, 2021
Cops analysed CCTV footage from three dozen cameras
As per the sources, Delhi Police obtained and analysed footage from around three dozen CCTV cameras covering the 3-KM region around Jafrabad. Police found that a set of rioters who were armed with sticks started from Chand Bagh and slowly moved across areas in Mustafabad. They kept vandalising the CCTV cameras on their way.
The retrieved footage showed how they changed the direction of some cameras while they broke the others. On some cameras, they put a piece of cloth to cover their tracks. As per the Police report, the violence erupted in these areas soon after all the cameras were covered or destroyed.
As per TOI sources, the movement of the rioters was not a random one. They moved systematically. A source said, “The footage from CCTV cameras falling on the route from where the rioting crowd passed were mapped for this exercise. It was not a random movement. They moved forward in a very systematic manner, waiting for the cameras to be made dysfunctional.”
In the charge sheet, the police alleged that the systematic way with which the rioters moved proves that they know the exact location of the CCTV cameras. It is not possible to vandalise all cameras with such precision without any plan. For such precise action, there must be weeks worth of planning behind the violence. The police said, “It was not violence that happened at the spur of the moment. Vandalising cameras at a spot is another thing, but to be aware of every camera across a 3km radius requires time and planning. A proper recce over days would have made this possible,” the police have claimed.
So far, Delhi Police has filed three charge sheets in the case under investigation by the special cell. It includes cases against the alleged key conspirators of the riots, including former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, former student union leaders Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam.
OpIndia’s investigation report on the chronology of events
OpIndia published a report on the chronology of events that took place since December 2019, leading to the anti-Hindu riots in February 2020. It is available as an ebook on Kindle. You can check it here.
